Thursday 29 August 2013

An Easel Belated Birthday Card and a gift box!


Hello Blog friends,
Welcome back! Hope you enjoyed my last offering and if you haven’t seen it, just scroll down.
Today, I’m sharing a Personalised Belated Birthday card and matching gift box.
This card was made for a work colleague for all her support.

 Let’s begin with the Card:
I started this card with a Scalloped edged card for the card.
The card already came folded, all I had to do is create the easel by folding the top of the card back onto itself, and I grabbed another similar card, cut that in half for the top of my easel card, the other half I kept for when I make another easel card next time.
I embossed the top card with a cupcake embossing folder, using my spellbinders die cut and embossing machine. Also used different Spellbinders label dies.
The next step was deciding on my focal points…I reached for my craft studio CD-ROM professional called simply silhouettes, this comprises of different unique papers and toppers. (Saves lots of storage spaces)
Once I have chosen my preferred cupcake topper (Love this swirled cupcake...looks yummy!) I actually shrunk it down and made my own backing paper. (Check here for tutorial)

The cupcake is stunning, has a lovely swirls on top, ideal for lots of bling  
The packaged gift was kind of lilac, that's where my inspiration began so, I changed the cupcake and backing paper to suit. The cupcake and backing paper was printed twice using Kodak colour printer,

Cupcake was cut freehand (twice) so I could decoupage the ribbon around it.
To put the card together, I cut out a silver mirri (mirror) card, black card and a piece of the printed backing paper, rounded the edges to give it an interesting look. Mat and layered them (This simply means layering stack of paper and or card with the largest one at the bottom then the next size down and so on) using scotch double sided tape to attach them together.
Side View Easel card showing the stopper
Close up!
To make a stopper for the easel so it could stand freely, I punched a strip of black card and backing paper on both sides using Martha stewart punch or you could use spellbinders edgers layered them using double sided tape then attach to my card using mountain foams. I used the graphic to type in the name printed it out- Using spellbinders circle die to cut it out, then layered onto scalloped circle die.
Here you can see the Personalised Envelope!
   
Now you can see the Card and the Envelope together! Competed with Bling, Flower, butterfly, Ribbon etc, etc
The envelope was also embossed with the cupcake embossing folder.
Gift Box- A Chinese takeaway type box Called -  So Fortunate- MTME
This is an SVG Cut file which I used my trusting Limited edition Pink Cricut Machine for Cancer Care for my cartridges and my Silhouette Cameo Cutting Machine
or you might want to use Sure Cuts a lot- SCAL to cut out the template.

This resize before cutting to accommodate the gift and to coordinate with the card. I used extra strong double sided tape to put it together, then decorated as desired!

Here I embossed a strip of lilac centura pearl card using swiss dot embossing folder, punched out a butterfly embellishment
using one od Martha Stewart punches!  
Here another one of Martha Stewart  Flower punch, I added a faux gem for a bit of sparkle!   
I love to relax with a bit of Yankee Candle after a hard shift at work!
Yankee Candle with shade and plate, L'Occitane hand cream, as we wash our hands more than100 time a day.
Don't you just love how all the gift can be neatly packaged into this lovely packaging!
In case you're wondering, I had to resize it so it was big enough to accommodate!



Project Recipes:-
White Card, Silver Mirri (Mirror) Card, Cupcake embossing folder, Spellbinders die cut and embossing machine, Kodak Printer, My Craft Studio graphics CD or here, Super smooth Printing paper and cards, Spellbinders Nestability Grand labels 4 normal label 4,  Labels twenty, Stamps, Lilac Ribbon, Rose bud, glitter, faux gemstone (Bling) Template- MTME, iphone, Camera, Click free for backing up all my photos and data.

Thanks all for looking, hope you come back tomorrow for another one of my creations!

 Hugs,

Bim xx



Monday 26 August 2013

Baby Boy Shower Card- Cricut


Baby Boy Shower Card

Hello everyone,   

I made this card for a dear friend and colleague of mine having her third baby which happened to be her first baby boy!  This was back in 2011, where has the time gone? I keep asking myself. Thankfully I stored my pictures on Click free 

When I make a card, I tend to tailor the card to the recipient. This is where good old cricut and Spellbinder’s dies comes in to play.
It is economical once you have the basics and I must admit it can also be quite expensive because you want to get your hands on all the cartridges. For instance, the card can be personalised according to skin and hair colouring.

You can most definitely see me use one or two Spellbinders die, Martha Stewarts punch, ribbon, flowers, bling... the whole crafting goodies (I’m sure that I’m not alone here, or am I crafters?)


Come with me as I share the techniques with you. 
I knew my friend was having a baby boy so I started with a large blue card
For layering, I used a white card which I cut the corners using Fiskars Scissors.

Followed by a blue Mirri card (Mirror), last of my layering, I Punched round a white card using Martha Stewart punch around the page but I left the bottom of my card un-punched.
Matting and layering, all layers were attached using double sided tape. You may also want to use spellbinders border dies! 

Baby Shower cut from New Arrival cartridge.
Image from New arrival-Cricut Cartridge ,Clear Faux gem applied around the empire line and on flap of the bag. 
Baby shower title was cut using the Cricut cartridge New arrival in white and layered in blue. Love that little blue heart shape (As per pic above)
I used blue polka dot ribbon on the side of the card, using my trusting Spellbinders, I die cut a blue Mirri (Mirror) card using round scalloped and white card with round die, slightly smaller to the scalloped die. I stamped a stork in the middle, the sentiments are straight but I curled them onto my stamping block to fit around the die cut. (Expecting a bundle of joy and wishing you luck) both 2 separate stamps. The stamps used are from MTME     


For my focal point, here I used Cricut New Arrival (Pg 82) my friend is black African hence the colour of the image to match her skin colouring, also having a boy, the blue outfit. (This kind of reminded me of my growing up in the late 60’s and 70’s when I used to buy the comic Mandy and I forgot the other one, you cut out the paper doll with lots of outfits with little tabs to attach to the dolls- good old days!)          

For the boutique, this is a digital stamp purchased a while ago and believe it or not, I used paint to colour this section- Every computer comes with a free one but there are other mediums that can be used such as gimp (I’m yet to master this technique) or just get out your colouring pens, Copic markers, Spetrum Noir or Promarker Pens, Zig marker pens --- easy peasy! Lol

I chose this particular one because I believe there was a collection going so I thought using a baby boutique was appropriate, she would be able to buy what she wanted with money collected!
To finish my card, I used some flowers and die cut swirls.

I also stamped the back of the card with an old bespoke stamp that I had made for me a long time ago.  
For my large envelope, I die cut and emboss Spellbinders labels 4, I layered this using Mirri card, and white card which was stamped using co-ordinating label 4 stamp and recipient’s name.
  


Now you might want to make the same or change it up a bit to suit your needs. Let me know what you think!

Card Recipes:-
Large Blue Card, Plain white card and Blue Mirri Card. Pink Provo Cricut (Limited edition for cancer care), Cricut Cartridge (New arrival)  Spellbinders Scalloped and plain circles, Martha Stewart punch, Clear rubber stamps baby sentiment, Boutique images all from MTME. Pigment inkpad (Pearlescent Sky Blue)  Bespoke stamp (Personalised Stamp)

Thanks all for stopping by come back tomorrow for another one of my creations! 
Hugs

Bim HH xx